


Thread of Hope

by Anyawen



Series: Mythology tales [5]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: 007 Fest 2020, Daedalus - Freeform, Don't copy to another site, Justice Is Served, Labyrinths, M/M, Mythology - Freeform, ariadne - Freeform, puzzles and games, team00, theseus - Freeform, threading a nautilus, wings of feathers and wax
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:35:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25431736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anyawen/pseuds/Anyawen
Summary: In which I mashup the Theseus and the Minotaur & Daedalus myths. For reasons. With Bond as Theseus, Q as Daedalus, Eve as Ariadne, Silva as Minos, M as Aegeus, and Mallory as Dionysus … ish.
Relationships: James Bond/Q, Pre-00Q - Relationship
Series: Mythology tales [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1814737
Comments: 1
Kudos: 21





	Thread of Hope

The genius lives alone in the high tower, collecting the fallen feathers of the birds that nest on the roof.

That is to say, the genius _is kept_ in the high tower, with only the birds for company. 

His freedom can be bought, but the price is too high. He will not give himself to the king who had used his skills to build the labyrinth concealing evidence of his various monstrous crimes. Not that he’d said that’s what he was hiding. No. Silva, king of Crete, had only mentioned a monster that must be contained, and Q had designed a labyrinth he believed even his mentor, the grey-eyed Athena, could not traverse.

Besides, he knows that buying his freedom from the tower will only change the nature of his captivity, and not for the better. He is aware that one day Silva will tire of his refusal and his isolation in the tower will end. He is not quite ready to throw himself from the roof, and wonders if he will be able to make that choice when Silva comes to take what he wants.

His only visitor besides Silva is a woman named Eve. Her position in Silva’s household is nebulous. She is Silva’s half-sister, and although the close relation seems to spare her certain of his more objectionable attentions, it does not confer upon her any sort of honored status. Clever and resourceful, she is nevertheless treated as a servant, though none but Silva and his steward dare give her orders. 

It is Eve who brings Q news of the ship’s arrival.

Bond, a nobleman of Athens, has come to Crete to challenge Silva. He and his sovereign, who has had dealings with Silva in the past, have heard of Silva’s crimes. Bond has come to uncover the evidence that Silva has hidden, exposing it to the eyes of the gods so that justice might be done.

Silva, confident in the labyrinth Q has built —and secure in the knowledge that, should he survive the traps and wild animals Silva has arranged throughout the maze, Bond can still be killed through treachery— has decided to allow the visitor to continue his quest.

Eve reports all of this to Q, who gives her a ball of twine and a stylus and asks her to convey them to Bond.

There is little Q can do to assist Bond in finding the center of the labyrinth and the information hidden there. However, if Bond succeeds in reaching the center, the stylus has been engineered to store all the data it writes, and the string will help him find his way back out, with the evidence he’s uncovered.

Eve takes the items and leaves Q pacing in his lonely tower.

Regardless of whether Bond succeeds or fails, Q knows that Silva’s willingness to let Bond make the attempt speaks of his growing arrogance. He hopes Bond succeeds, has a vague thought that such a success might result in his freedom, but he knows he can’t rely on such nebulous hopes. He has to do something to try to save himself from what’s coming.

He has an idea.

In the workshop that Silva has allowed him, he has wood for the framework, bits of leather for the harness, uncounted feathers collected from his closest companions, and wax. He builds two sets of wings - one for himself, and one for Eve, because he cannot leave his only friend here to suffer Silva’s wrath.

He works all night fashioning the wings, waiting for Eve to return with news of Bond’s efforts in the labyrinth.

It’s not Eve who brings him news. It’s Bond, himself, who comes to his door, the sound of shouting guards close behind him.

Bond had sent Eve, with Q’s stylus and the stored evidence of Silva’s crimes, to his ship with orders to set sail immediately. She was safe, and the information was on it’s way back to Athens, where his sovereign would present it to the gods for judgement. But Bond could not leave behind the man who had assisted him, given him the tools to succeed in his mission. He’d come intending to break Q out of his tower prison, but he’d been discovered, and now they were both trapped.

Except, they weren’t.

Q quickly made adjustments to the harness of the wings he’d built for Eve.Outside, they heard Silva shouting over the sound of the guards battering the tower door. He and Bond hurried into their wings, stepped to the parapet, and leapt.

By the time Silva was through the door, they were gone, gliding away on the wind over the open seas.

They found Bond’s ship and landed on the deck, shedding their wings. Bond tipped his over the railing, as an offering to Poseidon.

Q was a bit wobbly on the rolling deck of the ship, and nearly fell under the onslaught of an enthusiastic hug from Eve. Bond slid a quick arm around his waist to help keep him upright, and Q smiled his thanks, leaning into the Athenian. Eve returned the stylus to Bond, then Q watched with some bemusement as she returned to the ship captain’s side, pointing to the ship’s colors and gesturing. The captain nodded, and Eve ordered one of the sailors to climb the rigging to change the flag hanging from the topmast.

Q smiled to see Eve so quick to adapt.

“Mallory needs a first mate,” Bond said quietly beside him, and Q recalled that the man was all but holding him up. He tried to straighten and stand unassisted, but the pitch and yaw of the ship kept him unbalanced. Bond pulled him closer, not seeming to mind.

“Eve has a good mind for organizational detail,” Q replied, settling back against Bond’s chest, ignoring the way the horizon rose and fell in the distance. “She’s clever and bold, and not easily cowed.”

“Like you, she’s free of Silva’s control now. Like you, she can choose where to go, or where to stay,” Bond said. “Mallory seems pleased with her assistance. No doubt she’ll have a place here, if she wants it.”

“And me?” Q asked. “Where might I find a place that I can choose to stay?”

“You’re welcome in Athens, of course, for as long as you’d like. I hope you’ll allow me to be your host, so that I can thank you properly for sending me tools to help complete my mission.”

“It was a ball of string and a stylus,” Q said with a laugh. “Hardly proper tools.”

“The stylus stores data,” Bond said. “It allowed me to take a copy of Silva’s records, and to transport it with ease. Also, you built the wings that allowed us to escape. You saved our lives.”

“They were an untested prototype, you know.”

“They’re tested now, and they worked.”

“They did,” Q agreed. “And I’m glad of it, but pleased to be back on my own two feet. I’ll be happier still when my two feet are back on dry land.”

Bond laughed, and Q felt the rumble of it against his back.

The trip to Athens aboard the Naxos, on which Eve did elect to stay when Mallory offered her a position as his assistant, took them three days. Q never did find his sea legs, but Bond stuck by his side to keep him stable.

In Athens, Bond presented Q to his sovereign, a stern older woman who was named Olivia, but who Bond called M. She thanked him for helping Bond, took possession of the stylus, and dismissed them both. Bond only shrugged, and took Q home by way of a temple to Apollo, where Q left his wings as an offering.

The sky that night was filled with thunder, as M delivered the evidence of Silva’s crimes to Themis, goddess of Justice. Word reached Athens in the weeks that followed that Nemesis had visited her mother’s judgement on Crete, and Silva was deposed.

Q stayed with Bond. Their mutual gratitude, each for having aided in the saving of the other's life, grew into fondness. Q expressed a desire to choose the place he’d call his own, at Bond’s side. They decided, however, to travel a bit before they settled. Q wanted to see more of the world than the city of Athens, marvelous though it was, and the tower that had been his prison in Crete. With Bond at his side, he traveled through Greece, and braved another voyage aboard ship to the island of Sicily.

In Sicily Q heard tell of a contest of riddles and challenges organized by a stranger to the island. Q completed the puzzles posed in the contest until he was the only participant remaining for the final challenge. Tasked to thread a nautilus shell, he tied a string to an ant and placed a drop of honey at the center of the spiral. The ant was lured through the curling tunnel of the shell by the sweet reward at the end, and the nautilus was threaded.

The stranger revealed himself to be Silva, deposed king of Crete, searching for the man who had built, and then betrayed the secrets of the labyrinth, and escaped his carnal appetites. Silva put a knife in Q’s hand, and tried to get him to kill himself, to kill them both, in a temple dedicated to Themis.

He died with Bond’s sword in his back.

Themis, goddess of justice was pleased.

Q and Bond made their way back to Athens. Q decided that Athens, and Bond, were world enough for him.


End file.
